Hide and Seek
by Shosuro
Summary: A 6 yr old Kagome falls down the well and meets a 10 yr old Sesshoumaru way before InuYasha.


8

Disclaimer : I do not own InuYasha or anything else that goes along with it.

Note: The fates can do funny things to you, even when you don't want them to.

The well in this story does not act or function like the well in original story line.

Hide and Seek

Kagome searched frantically to find a place to hide. She heard in the background her daddy counting down. "20...19...18..." Her heart was pounding with excitement that she had almost missed the perfect hiding spot, but as luck would have it the wind picked up and opening the door just a crack, to the well. She ran in to small building thinking to herself that no one would be able to find her. She closed the door quietly and couldn't quite stop the little giggle that came from her mouth. Just then her daddy had stopped counting. She was so wrapped up in finding a hiding place that she didn't notice that her daddy had stopped counting and was now actively searching for his little girl. As she looked through the slats of the window, she noticed that her father was closing in fast to the area where she was hiding.

She backed away from the window quickly and put her hands over her mouth to stop the laughter that was trying to escape her body. Her daddy was very good at finding her. He usually called out to her, telling her that he would tickle her when he would catch her. He was doing that now, except she wanted to win this time. She slowly backed up in to the darkness of the small house. The house that was set aside for the forbidden well.

She heard her daddy's foot steps closing in on the little house. Her heart beat was slowly rising with excitement. She looked up at the window to see if she could see anything, but all she could see was light that was flowing from outside. She saw a tall shadow that covered a portion of the wall. She knew her daddy was very near, so she took another step back, slowly backing away from the light of the outside world and into the darkness.

"Kagome-chan...I know you are near. You cannot hide from me for long. I sense that you cannot stop your giggle for very long and when I find you I'm going to tickle you until you cry with laughter!!" Kagome's father said with laughter in his voice.

His little girl was his pride and joy. He loved playing with her out here. He loved the way she would run and laugh at the same time. There was nothing that he did not love about his little six year old Kagome. He couldn't wait until he would find her, to see the light that shown in those deep blue eyes. He knew how much Kagome loved to play Hide and Seek; it was one of her favorite games that she liked to play with her father. That made him smile. It made him eager to capture his daughter and make her laugh until her sides hurt. He searched the normal spots his daughter was most likely to hide in, but she was not in any of them. She was not even hiding behind InuYasha's Tree. The InuYasha tree was big tree that was tapered off because it was a very important part of the shrine. Now, that was her most favorite spot to hide in._'So my little Kagome is actually trying to hide this time. Well I guess it's my turn to turn it up a notch.'_ he thought to himself as he searched for Kagome-chan.

"Kagome-chan...I know you are near. You cannot hide from me for long. I sense that you cannot stop your giggle for very long, and when I find you I'm going to tickle you until you cry with laughter!!" he said very loudly and listened for his daughters giggles that he knew would soon follow his statement. To his surprise there was no giggle to be heard. _'So she is really trying this time...'_ he thought to himself.

He started to search in places that Kagome would normally NOT hide in. He looked around corners, behind buildings and under stairs. There was one place he still had not looked that was not the main house: the building that contained the Bone-Eater's Well. But he knew she wouldn't be in there because that building was always locked off to the rest of the world. He glanced over to that building and saw a flash of a set of deep blue eyes through the window slat. _'Clever little girl!'_ he thought to himself. _'But how did you get inside a locked building?'_

He started to walk in the buildings direction and glanced once again in the window. He didn't see any sparkling blue eyes through the wooden slats."Kagome-chan..." he whispered as he got closer to the door of the building.

Kagome heard her father whisper her name and knew that she would soon be caught, yet that did not stop her heart from beating faster. She took another step back into the darkness, trying to get away from her father's voice. She saw her father's shadow fall over the door in front of her. She heard her father say her name once more.

"Ka...go...ME!!" he yelled out the last syllable of her name as he slammed opened the sliding door. He was hoping that he would scare the living day lights out of her, to teach her a lesson. Teach her to not to go into the buildings that were supposed to be locked and forbidden to enter.

"Kagome! I found you, Kagome-chan! Come out! I won!" he said into the darkness.

He stood there letting his eyes adjust to the darkness, he notice that he did not hear his daughter's laughter or cry of surprise. When his eyes adjusted he looked around the small room that contained only the Bone Eater's Well. He moved from the doorway of the little building and let the sunlight from outside fall into the room. The light illuminated the well perfectly as he stepped into the room.

"Kagome-chan?" he said into the darkness. He did not see her anywhere as if she hadn't been there in the first place. _'Maybe I didn't see her in here...Maybe it's just my imagination playing tricks on me.' _he thought to himself. He was about to leave when a sudden clenching feeling in his gut made him stop. He slowly turned towards the well and glanced down.

"Kagome-chain..." he whispered down the well. Not wanting to believe that maybe, just maybe his beloved daughter may have fallen down the well.

The sunlight that fell into the building slightly lit up the well. It was just enough for him to notice that there was something or someone down there. His heart stopped for a second. His breath caught as images of his Kagome laying unconscious and hurt at the bottom of the well came flooding through his mind. His gut tightened even further as these thoughts raced through his mind. His next instinct was to jump down to the bottom of the well just to see if she was alright but he knew that if he did that there would be a chance that he would hit her on his way down.

He quickly looked down to the rim of the well and saw that there was a way down the well, there was an overgrowth of vines that grew down the side of the well. He gripped them and prayed to the gods that they were strong enough to hold him. He flung himself over the edge of the well and slowly descended. All the while he was calling out to Kagome. Telling her that he loved her and that he would be right down. He yelled out that everything would be alright and not to move. He quickly climbed down the vines to the bottom of the Bone-Eater's Well and prepared himself for the worst. What he found disturbed him even more. He reached out to her body and gently touch her. His hand quickly snapped back as if he was burnt by fire because what he felt was not the body of his daughter. He mentally reprimanded himself for being such a scarycat and grabbed what was there and brought it up to his face to get a better look at it. He came to face with a teddy bear...His daughter's teddy bear. The teddy bear that he gave her when she was first born. The same teddy bear that she always carried with her.

His gut feelings told him that she was here. Her teddy bear lying here told him she was here. _'She would never just leave Mr. Teddy Bear anywhere. Kagome-chan took this bear everywhere; to play; to bed; she even hid Mr. Teddy Bear within her bed when she sent to school. There is no way she would just drop her bear in the well unless she didn't mean to. Maybe she dropped it in here by accident... but that made no sense. Kagome-chan would have started to cry and yell for me until I came rescue her teddy bear.' _

He held the teddy bear close to his heart as he looked around at the bottom of the well. He knew his daughter was once in this building. He knew this because of the bear. What he didn't know was where she was now. He grabbed a hold of the vines and started to clime his way up and out of the well. As he climbed out of the well he hoped that his bad premonition was wrong. He hoped that he would find her somewhere else, hiding and playing a very bad trick on her father. He hoped that once out of the well and into the main house, he would find his daughter helping her mother set the plates for lunch or upstairs in her room coloring in her favorite coloring book. But he knew not to take for granted his gut feelings, for they where usually on the target.

He thought of the legend of the Bone-Eater's Well. He knew that once a long time ago, demons' bodies where thrown down the well because the well would eat the demon's flesh and bones. He needed to speak with his father about the well. He wanted to check everywhere for Kagome, just to make sure that she is didn't run off to another part of the shrine's grounds. He hated the thought of telling his wife that he thought maybe their only daughter had fallen down the well and was no where to be seen. He knew he had to do this because he needed all the information he could get in order to find his daughter. His beloved Kagome.

A moan escaped Kagome's body as she slowly regained consciousness. She opened her eyes to find the dirt floor of the well. She gingerly sat up, thinking to herself that she was going to be be in a lot of pain, but it did not come. She looked around and noticed that her teddy bear was no where to be seen.

_'Did I drop Mr. Teddy Bear, before I fell into the well?'_ she thought to herself. She looked up to the top of the well and saw baby blue sky. _'That's odd.'_

"Hello?! Daddy? Daddy!! I'm down the well, daddy!! I fell down the well, daddy!! Can you help me out?!?!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. She waited to see her father's face at the top of the well. He would soon rescue her like a knight in shining armor...but he never did. She waited for a few moments, and when he did not show up she started to panic. She wanted out of the well and she wanted her daddy!! So she did the next thing that came natural for a little girl of her age...

...she started to cry.

The land was lush green as far as the eye could see, and being a demon you could see far distance indeed. The wind caressed the trees in a loving touch. It flowed through the landscape and ruffled everything in its wake. Including a little demon's silver hair. Sesshoumaru stopped in his tracks and stood there feeling the wind through his hair. It felt wonderfully cool, with the hint of sakura blossoms in the air. The Great Future Lord of the Western Lands smirked into the sky and continued his walk through the country side.

Sesshoumaru found himself reflecting on his new training; training that would eventually make him into the Great Lord of the Western Lands. To become a great lord one was always raised like one, since the time he was born he was instructed to become a great lord. It was just now that his training had started in earnest when he turned 10 years old. Each morning he would begin his training from the before dawn until he went to bed at night did his teachers let up on him. It was a wonder that they let him have today off. Something that was unlikely to happen happened and Sesshoumaru did not ask questions he was just glad that today he had off.

He continued on his walk though the forest lost in thought when the wind picked up again. This time there was a different scent in the air that was not there before. Sesshoumaru's eyes snapped opened and he concentrated on the smell, trying to use those skills that were trained into him. There it was again that scent that smelled of innocence and something salty. He could not place why there would be something salty in the air but he trusted his keen sense of smell. It was one of the many things that was so great about being a dog demon.

Sesshoumaru noticed that the forest around him was different from the Western forest of his father's lands. He stops to look around the surrounding area and wondered to himself where could he be. 'How did I get so far way from the Western Lands?' he thought to himself as he looked at the forest before him. There was nothing he could do but go back the way he came from. The only problem with that was that he was in a different forest than he was used to. There would be no way of knowing which direction he should go, because this was the farthest away from the Western Lands he had ever been by himself. Any other time outside of the Western Lands he was with his parents. They did not let him go outside of the Western Lands because there was so much danger in world. Even though he was a very powerful demon in his own right, there where still other demons that would take great pleasure in killing the heir to the Western Lands. So he stood there looking at the forest in front of him when he realized that he would just smell his way back to the Western Lands!

He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath through his nose. The scent of innocence hit his nose once more. He realized that all thought of where this innocent scent came from had left him once he noticed that he was lost in a forest that was unknown to him. Curiosity getting the best of him he tried to follow the innocent smell to its source. He followed the wind that carried the scent to a large hidden field that contained what looked to be a small well. His ears twitched. There was some noise coming from the well, very faint but there nonetheless. The sound so faint that you would have to have been listening for the sound, or be a demon with very keen hearing, in order to have picked up the noise.

He walked towards the sounds which lead to the well. The closer he got the more he noticed that the sound did not come from a demon but a human...a human girl. From the pitch of the sound he figured it was a little girl, who was crying. Sesshoumaru walked to the edge of the well and stood there in front of it. He closed his eyes and smelled the scent of tears in the air. He also smelled the fear in the air that was coming from the little girl. He opened his eyes and glanced down the well to find a little girl holding herself while she cried her eyes out.

"Why are you crying?"

Kagome's head snapped up to the sound of the question that came from the top of the well and she was quickly blinded by the light. She blinked her eyes a couple of times to clear her eyes of the dots that appeared in front of her. When her eyes adjusted to the light she noticed that there was a young boy that was looking down the well, at least that was what she could see. The way the sunlight hit the well made it very bright to see anything but the figure of the young boy. Who was now waiting for her answer.

"I want out! I want out of the well...please...can you help...sniff sniff... "me..get out of the well!!" Kagome choked out before she ended up crying once more.

Sesshoumaru blinked. All he saw down the well was a little shivering form, even though it wasn't cold. Then once he asked his question the little girl stopped crying and shivering. She looked up for that source of "light" within her darkness. Sesshoumaru had to catch his breath as he saw sparkling sapphires looking up at him with so much hope and happiness, that at first he did not realize that the little form started to say something. All he could get out of her was "help me" and fell into well" before she fell back to crying. He stood there for a moment or two before he made his move to back away from the well.

Kagome felt the boy's shadow leave the top of the well, and she glanced back up to see no one there. She started to cry harder than before.

"Please..." she sobbed out, "please don't leave me," she got up and tried to climb the vines that were running down the sides of the well. She climbed up a foot but she fell down to the floor of the well. She couldn't see anything within the well and she was terrified of being alone. "I want my daddy!"

"I want my daddy, I want my daddy! Please I want to get out...I wanna go home... please,please!!" she cried out her mantra, trying to calm herself down.

"Do not move."

Kagome heard the command even through her tears and mantra. She glanced up and watched as the boy started to climb down the well using the vines that were attached to the sides of the well. Her mantra started to slow down as he descended the well, and by the time he got to the bottom the mantra had stopped all together. All that was left in Kagome's panic was her tears that kept flowing down her dirty cheeks.

Sesshoumaru turned around to look upon the human that got him into this mess. He found a little girl with big sapphire blue eyes that sparkled with her tears. Her face was slightly dirty with tear stains running down her cheeks. From what he could see she was wearing a light pink kimono with white blossoms on it, that was slightly dirty from the well floor.

"Do not cry. I am here," he stated, as if his presence alone could protect her from her own fears.

Kagome hic-upped up a few more times before she eventually stopped crying. She was interested in the boy that was before her. She looked up at the boy to see who he was and if she recognized him but she did not. He looked like he was a few years older than she was but not by much. His face she could not see; he was still standing in the well's shadow. As she looked at him he slowly turned around and knelt down on the ground. He did not say anything but made a gesture with his hands for her to come climb onto his back.

She moved forward and cautiously touched his shoulders and noticed that her right hand came into contact with something silky soft. Her fingers ran through the softness and she realized it felt like fur.

Sesshoumaru felt her slowly walk over to him and touch his fur. He felt her start to pet him whether she knew it or not. He gathered her onto his back and she held on tight. He stood up and grabbed a hold of the vines, preparing to climb out of the well, when he thought of something.

"Hold on tight," he commanded the little girl on his back. He felt her little hands tighten their hold on him as he wrapped his fur around her little body, just in case.

Kagome was in warmth. Her body was wrapped in the warmth of this boy's fur. She started to feel her eyelids drooping. All the crying that she had did just a few moments ago came back to her. All the energy that she wasted was making itself known. The steady rhythm of this boy's climbing was rocking her asleep and before she knew it she had fallen completely asleep. She was comforted in the fact that she was finally getting out of the well and she was wrapped in the warmth of this boy's fur.

Sesshoumaru could hear her breathing slow down until it was obvious that she had fallen asleep on his back. His fur tighten its hold on her and kept her from falling off of his back; she had let go of her hold on him when she had fallen asleep. He finally reached the top pf the well and raised himself out. The world outside of the well did not change; it still was strikingly green and beautiful. He smelled the air for any danger that may be around, but found nothing there. He glanced down to find his armor in the grass where he had took it off so that he would be able to carry the little girl out of the well with out hurting her with it's his sharp points. He grabbed his armor and started to walk over to the edge of the forest that surrounded the hidden well and found a nice tree to sit underneath.

Sesshoumaru's fur brought the little girl from behind him to in front of him. He gracefully sat against the tree that he had picked out and watched as his fur laid down the little girl next to him. She was still a sleep and would be for a while. Who knew how long she was down the well crying her little heart out. He sat there wondering about the little girl.

'How did you get down there, little one?' he thought to himself.

He caught himself in mid train of thought and reprimanded himself foe thinking about a human that was below his notice. He knew that showing emotion was going against his new training. "To become a great Lord, one must have complete control of one's emotions." His sensei had once said to him.

Sesshoumaru looked to the sky and wondered how long it would take until someone noticed that he was away from the Western Lands. Judging by the shadows of the trees, it was three hours since he walked out of his father's lands. How he had he gotten to this hidden well so fast he did not know because he still had not learned how to teleport. He shrugged it off to think about later, distracted in the fact that the little girl had shifted into the warmth. She had wrapped her arms into his fur and snuggled into it.

He closed his eyes and smiled on the inside. He slowed his breathing and started to go into his meditation like he was taught. 'Might as well train here, while I wait for the little one to wake,' he thought to himself.


End file.
